Upgrading to WordPress 2.3: I will write 100 times…

I had other things on my plate today… but it was smart to upgrade WordPress 2.3 on a Sunday after church, because it broke, and that gave me several hours to focus on this problem. Things should be o.k. now, and there’s nothing wrong with WordPress 2.3; the error was between my ears.

Before upgrading, I set up a test site (which is what you’re supposed to do) but I cut some corners (which is what you’re NOT supposed to do). Naturally, since I cut corners, I was punished. I was also punished for guessing what the problems would be (I was fixated on the idea that the Cutline theme would create issues) and not inspecting the list of known problems carefully enough.

The whole reason I waited to upgrade was to gage other folks’ experiences, and if I had paid attention beyond the “LGTM” comments (Looks Good To Me), I would have thought more about the key change to the WordPress category/taxonomy structure, which would have forced me to slow down, disable every plugin in my old installation, upgrade, and then reenable every known compatible plugin one by one. Plus I would have had the time to find substitute plugins for favorites that aren’t working correctly.

What went right: not rushing out to upgrade right away; putting up a test site and testing my theme and some plugins; following the discussion at the Cutline theme site; waiting for a day when I had spare time to address issues (and not the day before a trip, either!); staying collected enough to take a term from the database error message (wp_post2cat) and run it through Google, which lead me straight to the WordPress Codex.

It may not have seemed that I rushed, because I certainly wasn’t in the first wave of installations, but I didn’t have a need that trumped doing things right the first time.

My punishment fit the crime: I lost several hours on a nice Sunday to upgrading software. But I have been set free under the early-release program, and will write for an hour, go for a long walk/run, and then write some more.